The mystery revealed at last

If you've read my previous posts you'll know that a couple of weeks ago I decided to investigate some jewellery making workshops to try and learn some new technicques.  I saw a basic necklace making workshop advertised at The Bead Shop Scotland and, although I've been making all sorts of necklaces for a while, I thought it would do no harm to go along and see if there was a better way to do things as I've learned everything from books.

I'm so glad I went.  Calottes have always been a bit of a trial for me.  Everything I knew about them I'd learned from books and they never quite went into enough detail.  As a result I developed a deep mistrust of calottes as a way of finishing off a piece of jewellery.  They looked pretty but I never quite trusted them to stay put without filling them with superglue.  All that changed last night.  Louise, the lady taking the workshop, gave us our calottes and our round nose pliers and showed us the correct way to use them.  She added some details the books didn't mention, like the fact that you should crimp the hinges and turn the loop into a full circle so that it can't unravel.

So here were are, my creation from last night, complete with secure calottes:

I won't be selling this as I'm not happy with the crimps.  I haven't decided whether to dismantle it and start again with tubes crimps (which have a nicer finish) or whether to just keep it for myself in it's current state.

UPDATE:

I dismantled my 'class' effort and started again. Admittedly the only bits from the original are the calottes (yay!) and fasteners but I think it's improved slightly:

The beads that look grey in the photo are actually almost silver.  Silly camera! Reflect reality why don't you?